Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin vaccine will cost Rs 600 per dose for state governments and Rs 1,200 per dose for private hospitals, the company said in a statement on Saturday.
For exports, the COVID-19 vaccine will cost in the range of $15 to $20.
The other vaccine maker in the country, Serum Institute of India (SII), will sell its Covishield vaccine at Rs 400 per dose to states and Rs 600 to private hospitals.
Bharat Biotech, however, intends to keep prices for the Central government unchanged at Rs 150, unlike Serum Institute, which is seeking to increase the rate for the Centre to Rs 400 per shot.
“Bharat Biotech is honoured to develop, manufacture and supply Covaxin for India’s vaccine rollout at Rs 150/dose, distributed free by the Government of India,” stated the vaccine maker in its announcement late on Saturday.
“We would like to state that more than 50 percent of our capacities have been reserved for Central Government supplies (at Rs 150/dose),” it added.
“Recovering costs is essential in the journey of innovation towards other vaccines such as Intranasal COVID-19, Chikungunya, Zika, Cholera and others. Our core mission for the last 25 years has been to provide affordable, yet world-class healthcare solutions for the globe,” Bharat Biotech chairman and managing director Krishna M Ella said in the statement.
Bharat Biotech – COVAXIN® Announcement pic.twitter.com/cKvmFPfKlr
— BharatBiotech (@BharatBiotech) April 24, 2021
“Covaxin is an inactivated and highly purified vaccine, making manufacturing expensive due to very low process yields. All costs towards product development, manufacturing facilities and clinical trials were deployed primarily using internal funding and resources of Bharat Biotech,” the company said.
Everyone above 18 years of age will be eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19 from May 1, 2021 the central government announced recently and also liberalised the vaccination drive to allow states, private hospitals and industrial establishments to procure the doses directly from manufacturers.
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